THE Scottish Government reacted angrily to the Autumn Statement claiming it would represent a six per cent reduction in public services in Scotland.
Scottish Office ministers hit back pointing out that the independent Office for Budget Responsibility was expecting North Sea oil revenues to fall 94 per cent to £130 million this year, and not the £6.8-£7 billion predicted by the Scottish Government in the White Paper.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the Autumn Statement was the Chancellor reaffirming his “austerity of choice” ideology.
Swinney said: “The Chancellor has continued with ideologically-driven austerity of choice. Scotland will see almost six per cent of the day-to-day budget that pays for public service slashed as a result of this Chancellor’s statement.”
He continued: “We will continue to do everything within our power to protect the most vulnerable from the UK Government’s austerity measures – austerity of choice, not necessity – but we want to use our powers and resources to lift people out of poverty, not just continually mitigate as best we can.”
In his statement Osborne said capital spending would increase in Scotland by £1.9bn in the years to 2021.
The Chancellor said: “We have delivered our vow to implement the Smith Commission agreement in full. The Scottish Government will now have to make the hard choices that we have had to in order to protect frontline services for the people of Scotland.”
There were a number of Scottish announcements in the statement. Dundee Airport is to get a share of a £7m subsidy to support “regional air connectivity”, which will go towards flights to Amsterdam.
The new route will be the city’s first scheduled continental air link.
MP Chris Law welcomed the announcement: “An international link for our city is part of a much bigger vision for Dundee to take its place on the world stage – the new air route is a really important part of that, but there is much more to come”
Osborne also used his Autumn Statement to announce a £5m boost in funding for Glasgow’s world-famous Burrell Collection.
In addition, he also said the City Deal, which effectively sees extra powers devolved to local authorities, and which is already being delivered to Glasgow, will be considered for Aberdeen and Inverness.
The Conservatives' Murdo Fraser and Labour’s Jackie Baillie both said the Scottish Government should apologise for having misled Scots over oil prices in the run up to the referendum.
Baillie said: “The scale of the cuts that would have been required to budgets for our schools and hospitals had the SNP got their way is simply unimaginable.
“The SNP should apologise to the Scottish people for misleading everybody on oil.”
Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: “Given these latest figures, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney should show they are prepared to move on by apologising for what was a deliberate and conscious decision to deceive people.”
A spokesman for John Swinney, said: “It is the Tories who should be apologising for their part in not saving a single penny of Scotland’s vast oil revenues over the last 40 years.”
He continued: “The reality is the UK Government forecasts for oil prices were higher than the Scottish Government’s in the run-up to the referendum.
“Scotland remains the biggest oil producer in the EU – and even without oil, Scotland’s output per head ranks third of the 12 countries and regions of the UK, behind only London and the south east.”
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